Personal Statments and Acceptances

[789Phil]

I'm curious if there is any correlation between tailoring personal statements and acceptance rates. Did anyone aim for an acceptance at a particular school and, thus, tailor their personal statement specifically for that school? And did they get accepted (assuming having passed GRE and GPA cutoffs)? I'm just curious if the personal statement (fit) is perhaps *the* most important thing (once GPA and GRE cut offs are passed). After all, it makes sense if it is: why would a program accept a person whose research interests are outside the scope of courses they can offer? I'm thinking the better we convey how the program we are applying to is the best program for us, specifically, (via personal statement) , the more likely you get in. Thoughts?

 

I really want to know if people who wrote modified personal statements for individual programs were accepted to more programs (Although I realize PS is just one of many factors) 

[Inka dreams]

I'm curious if there is any correlation between tailoring personal statements and acceptance rates. Did anyone aim for an acceptance at a particular school and, thus, tailor their personal statement specifically for that school? And did they get accepted (assuming having passed GRE and GPA cutoffs)? I'm just curious if the personal statement (fit) is perhaps *the* most important thing (once GPA and GRE cut offs are passed). After all, it makes sense if it is: why would a program accept a person whose research interests are outside the scope of courses they can offer? I'm thinking the better we convey how the program we are applying to is the best program for us, specifically, (via personal statement) , the more likely you get in. Thoughts?

 

I really want to know if people who wrote modified personal statements for individual programs were accepted to more programs (Although I realize PS is just one of many factors) 

Well, I cannot say for others, but all my personal statements were tailor made for each school. Yes, the field I applied to was the same and so were my reasons to apply. BUT, each school focuses on certain aspects. For example, in my field Rutgers focused on purely human resources management, while Cornell had a lot more emphasis on labor relations, conflicts, policy etc...

 

Also when I helped a friend with her statements, I realized each school asked different questions. While all the schools wanted answers to "why this program and why this school?", many also wanted to know "how will your studies help society or how will you help bring diversity to the school etc etc"

 

I have acceptances from all schools (bar one) I applied for and so did my friend. We indeed tweaked and modified significant portions of the statement for each school - horrendous effort but in my opinion a necessity.

[MattDest]

I tailored my personal statements to each school (well, one paragraph), and you can see my stats. If I had to apply again, I'd probably do it the same way. I don't see why you wouldn't tailor a paragraph to each school. The only gamble - to me - seems to be whether or not to name people you would be interested in working with. 

[DHumeDominates]

MattDest raises a crucial distinction. Irrespective of the value of "tailoring" the personal statement to specific schools, should one drop names? I'd say, in general, no. If you'd like to work with professors X and Y, and the rest of your application betrays that fact, the admissions committee will very, very, very likely know it. If the admissions committee doesn't know it, then reconsider whether you really know whether you'd like to work with X and Y.

 

Sometimes dropping names may harm an applicant. One runs the risks, most notably, of misstating a professor's interests and inciting jealous reactions from other faculty on the admissions committee.

[prepare2deluze]

I don't see why you wouldn't tailor a paragraph to each school. 

 

One possible gamble is that the school believes your characterization of their program is incorrect - and thus - feels that you don't know their department well, and from that - making you a bad fit. Whereas if one were to simply give an exposition of their interests, the applicant would purely let the department decide if they were a good candidate. 

[Weltgeist]

I didn't really tailor my statement except a few tweaks in the final paragraph if their website mentioned some sort of description about the department as such that I admired and could say that I fit with. I figured that after a page and a half of describing my interests my fit with the department should be self-evident.

[perpetuavix]

I tailored my statements quite a bit. I always talked about my primary interest (philosophy of science) but I swapped out my secondary interest based on the school (feminist philosophy or philosophy of language, depending which one was better represented at the school). I also looked at the percentage of fellowships vs. teaching assistantships and included an extra paragraph about my experiences teaching for the schools with mostly assistantships. My last paragraph was always specifically about the school and included specific professors. I usually didn't talk in depth about the work of the professors, although my statement for Seattle included details about a professor's work, because I had seen her speak at APA East. 

[Glasperlenspieler]

I got waitlisted at 2 schools and rejected at 8.  In all of my statements of purposes I basically just changed the last paragraph or two and made it specific to each school.  Interestingly though, the two schools I got waitlisted at were the only two statements of purpose where I talked to some extent about the work of a particular POI, and how it related to what I wanted to do.  So take that for what it's worth...

Edited March 21, 2014 by DerPhilosoph

[philosophe]

I had a general first paragraph about my background, desires for grad study, etc., and then swapped out a second paragraph to match the school. I was saying generally the same things based on my interest, but typically mentioned one to two faculty members with whom I would like to work, highlighting our interests in common. You can see my record below, I think thing's have worked out generally ok for me. 

 

By the way, my personal statements were all only a page. I was told short and sweet is best. 

Edited March 21, 2014 by philosophe

[wandajune]

I did not name faculty or tailor my statement very specifically for each school. I did have one line in the final paragraph where I would list a few of the department's strengths that overlapped with my interests, citing those strengths as my reason for considering the program. Mostly, I tried to just give an honest description of what I am interested in studying, and I think that it was apparent based on that description that I would be a good fit for the schools that admitted me. I got into 8 out of the 12 programs to which I applied.

Edited March 21, 2014 by wandajune

[philadam]

^ I did the same thing, though I also mentioned names if they were Kierkegaard scholars, or the only one working in an area I was interested in, and thus couldn't generalize.

I was accepted to 1/10.

Edited March 21, 2014 by philadam